A river - and if so where in the river are you - high in the mountains, moving through the rapids or headed for the edge of a waterfall or just arriving at the ocean

I promise it's not that daft a question.If you've not read anything yet that resonates please have a think before reading further. You might even want to have a look at my Pinterest board with other suggestions on metaphors we use for life including:

To make sense of the world we relate to life in terms of metaphors. It's these metaphors that set the tone for our lives and our relationships with others. They're a bit like our own in-built operating manual.So let's compare the difference between 3 very different metaphors and notice the impact they might have on how we live our life:

Life as a War

Life as a Machine

Life as a Garden

Alarm clock

Battle cry for immediate
action

Whistle to start work

Would waken with sun and
birds

Objective for the day

To win the battle and beat
the opposition

Efficiency and to keep going

To grow and flourish
alongside others

Objective for the year

To win the war

Minimal down time and
maximise output

To sow your seeds

Eating

Energy for short term
benefit

Energy but people are easily
replaceable

Nourishment for long term
growth

Working with others

Control and command

Everyone doing their bit as
prescribed

Collaboration

Rest

A necessity to be kept to a
minimum

Unnecessary people are
replaceable

A part of a 24 hour cycle

Conflict

To be embraced

Bad planning

To be avoided

Solving problems

For highest ranking officers
to decide

Resort to manual

Left to specialists to
decide

Meditation

Useless activity

Unnecessary

Part of the necessary cycle
of life

Illness

Sign of weakness

Bad selection

Sign of disease

Of course my own internal
metaphor(s) will be impacting how I present the above. In other words you may
have found yourself disagreeing with my interpretation, and putting a different
slant on them.

The point is we do have
metaphors (scripts) that determine how we tackle our day, the decisions we make
and how we do what we do and relate to and judge others. It's how we are able make so many decisions so
quickly every day ie simply deciding what action best fits the metaphor we’re
operating within. For example:

Someone usually
operating within a war metaphor could find compassion very difficult and
possibly even a sign of weakness. If forced to do so their interpretation would
be made using the metaphor – so compassion could either be explained away as
doing it under duress, or even as purely a tactic to win the war!

Someone operating within a
machine metaphor would be unlikely to be able to show any compassion - as it's
not a facet able to be fitted into the metaphor.

Compassion would however come
much more easily and naturally to someone operating within a garden metaphor.

The key is knowing the
preferences you have for certain metaphors within certain contexts, and
understanding the strengths and weaknesses they bring with them.

For example my preference for
a garden metaphor means I back off from competition, conflict and don't like to
be told what to do about things I'm an expert in, nor having too many processes
and procedures to follow. At times all things I need to be able to effectively
handle and flex my metaphor to be able to do.

Funny how our filters work –
having started to write this blog last night I saw reference to a book entitled
‘flat army’ - that I assume tries to amend the conventional metaphor of an army
to make it more applicable to the 21st century. Although with my
garden preferences I can't help but feel it still involves winning at all
costs.

What metaphor(s) do you
operate within, and how does it support or hinder you on a daily basis? AlisonAlison SmithInspiring Change inside and outMetaphors used in our language are a common theme to my coaching sessions with clients, with those using nature and landscaping your life also a frequent visitor. My most popular blog Making mountains out of molehills is a great example of how the metaphors we use can also provide the solution to the very challenges they're describing. Of courseorganisations have operating metaphors too.An index of blogs written about the many different tools I use in coaching can be found here.

2 comments:

Nope. Army comes from the word 'armada' which means flotilla. I titled the book to help leaders and organizations see there is a way in which an armada can be flat, even with the need for hierarchy and captains. (www.flatarmy.com)

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach

Global procurement and business speaker, coach, consultant, facilitator, and trainer using unconventional tools (and a few conventional ones) to support individuals, procurement and organisations to break out of their comfort zones.

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